King married Coretta Scott in 1953, and the following year he accepted the pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. King received his Ph.D. in systematic theology from Boston University in 1955. On December 5, 1955, after civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to comply with Montgomery’s segregation policy on buses, black residents launched a bus boycott and elected King president of the newly-formed Montgomery Improvement Association. The boycott continued throughout 1956 and King gained national prominence for his role in the campaign. In December 1956 the United States Supreme Court declared Alabama’s segregation laws unconstitutional, and Montgomery’s buses were desegregated.

In 1960, black college students initiated a wave of sit-in protests that led to the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). King supported the student movement and expressed an interest in creating a youth arm of the SCLC. Student activists admired King, but they were critical of his top-down leadership style and were determined to maintain their autonomy. As an advisor to SNCC, Ella Baker, who had previously served as associate director of SCLC, made clear to representatives from other civil rights organizations that SNCC was to remain a student-led organization. The 1961 “Freedom Rides” heightened tensions between King and younger activists, as he faced criticism for his decision not to participate in the rides. Conflicts between SCLC and SNCC continued during the Albany Movement of 1961 and 1962.

In the spring of 1963, King and SCLC led mass demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, where local white police officials were known for their violent opposition to integration. Clashes between unarmed black demonstrators and police armed with dogs and fire hoses generated newspaper headlines throughout the world. President Kennedy responded to the Birmingham protests by submitting broad civil rights legislation to Congress, which led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Subsequent mass demonstrations culminated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which more than 250,000 protesters gathered in Washington, D. C. It was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

King’s renown continued to grow as he became Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1963 and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. The Presidential Medal of Freedom was awarded to Dr. King by President Jimmy Carter in 1964. However, along with the fame and accolades came conflict within the movement’s leadership. Malcolm X‘s message of self-defense and black nationalism resonated with northern, urban blacks more effectively than King’s call for nonviolence; King also faced public criticism from “Black Power” proponent, Stokely Carmichael.

King’s efficacy was not only hindered by divisions among black leadership, but also by the increasing resistance he encountered from national political leaders. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s extensive efforts to undermine King’s leadership were intensified during 1967 as urban racial violence escalated, and King’s public criticism of the U. S. intervention in the Vietnam War led to strained relations with Lyndon Johnson’s administration.

CORETTA SCOTT KING

After her husband’s death in 1968, Coretta King emerged as an important activist in her own right. She founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change and led the fight to make her husband’s birthday a national holiday. Yet she also was known as a loving mother who reared four children alone. She instilled in them a reverence for the ideals their father espoused, as well as an independence to chart their own courses, even if it challenged long-standing ideals of who or what they should be.

She became an international advocate for peace and human rights. She met with presidents and world leaders and was arrested fighting against apartheid. And well into her 70s, she traveled the globe to speak against racial and economic injustice, promote the rights of the powerless and poor, and advocate religious freedom, full employment, health care, educational opportunities, nuclear disarmament and AIDS awareness.

Coretta Scott King, 78, of Atlanta, died on February 4, 2006, at a holistic hospital in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, about 17 miles south of San Diego. Despite her physical struggles, friends and family members said her last days were painful, she had made a surprise appearance the previous month during The Martin Luther King Center’s annual “Salute to Greatness Awards Dinner” in downtown Atlanta. She was wheeled into the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, triggering an admiring standing ovation. She smiled, waved and kissed family members, but she did not speak. It would be her last public appearance.

On January 31, 2006, National Public Radio broadcast “A Musical Tribute to Coretta Scott King.” To honor Mrs. King’s memory, the program drew upon music from a long-standing tradition in Atlanta. From the 2005 edition of the annual King Celebration concert, the tribute to Mrs. King included Lift Every Voice and Sing, performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the glee clubs of Morehouse and Spelman colleges. The tribute also included a 1998 interview on National Public Radio, during which Mrs. King had reflected upon the importance of music to the Civil Rights Movement.

We were sent this short note by one of the victims of Reprisal Discrimination we’re working with, and felt it worth sharing on this particular date. The writer is a 46 year old male, raised in Atlanta, and is from a multi-racial family. His family was meager financially, broken like many and he struggled through school. He enlisted the Navy, and thrived in a service that rewarded dedication and hard work. He eventually was promoted to Senior Chief Petty Officer (E-8 the second highest enlisted pay grade) and received a direct commission appointment to Ensign. In 2005 he retired a Lieutenant Commander and resides with his family in North Carolina. These are his words:

“Today reminds me of a life event that I only later in life came to understand the importance of. When I about 5 years old, I attended summer bible school at our church outside Atlanta “Skyland United Methodist Church.” The bible school theme that summer had something to do with cultures around the world. Much of what happened that summer at bible school is fuzzy at best some 40 years later as I look back, but one field trip stands out in my mind. We loaded up in the church’s bus and were driven to down-town Atlanta. We were taken past many landmarks including the Ebenezer Baptist Church and later ended up outside a building that was not too far off the street, I remember being described as a home Martin Luther King, Jr. had lived in. What made this visit so neat as I look back on it was the fact that at one point a lady exited the home, walked down the steps and our bible school teacher announced that we were being honored with the presence of Mrs. King (Mrs. Coretta Scott King). Mrs. King was kind enough to great us all, she made some brief comments about her husband that at five years old, I wasn’t nearly smart enough to remember the importance of.

It gets better, many years later after graduating from High School, I worked in a Funeral Home in Atlanta (H.M. Patterson & Son’s) on Spring Street. Still not the smartest kid on the block even having made it through High School, I didn’t initially pick-up on the significance of being asked to run errands to a church in town and even being told by my boss “whatever Daddy King wants, Daddy King get’s.” That statement didn’t sink into my thick head and I certainly didn’t connect the dots. Yes, I was an idiot until the day it all came together and I asked one my bosses why we did so much for this Daddy King guy. My boss looked at me like the idiot that I was, then put me in a car and drove me to the Ebenezer Baptist Church and then to the King Center. I’m much smarter now, and count myself among the few people I have ever met, who have been privileged to meet both Daddy King and Coretta Scott King.”